Legal Issues

Law is defined as a collection of rules imposed by authority or a body of rules of conduct inherent in human nature and important to the human society. Laws are enforced by the police, supported by courts and prison systems. In addition laws are usually written by legislators like senators or congressmen The legal system of the United States is actually very complex and it breaks down law into several types which include the following constitution, statutes, common law, administrative regulations and decisions, treaties, ordinances and executive orders (Annissimoy, 2009).Law plays a very significant role in society and without it, the society would not be able to function effectively.

Generally, the functions of the law can be summarized into eight as follows maintenance of order, ensuring safety to people in society, establishment of equality, protection of citizens, protection of human rights, encouraging ethical behaviour, setting guidelines and settling disputes. In this study, three fundamental functions will be thoroughly discussed with illustrations of how they affect the society that we live in.

Protection of human rights is one of the major roles of the law. Human rights can best be explained as norms that help to protect all people everywhere from severe political, legal and social abuses (Nickel James, 2006).It is known that in the recent decades, international human rights has had an ever-growing impact on domestic legal systems throughout the world and even on the daily work of domestic judges, prosecutors and lawyers. Humanity yearns for respect, tolerance and protection of rights and freedom and its the role of the law in any given country to ensure that every individual is covered to satisfaction. In addition, there should be recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal rights of all members of the human family as the foundation of freedom, peace and justice in a country and the world at large. The following are examples to illustrate some areas in which the law comes in to protect and keep human rights human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights hence they are endowed with reason and conscience. As a result people should act towards each other in a spirit of brotherhood without undermining anyone hence violation of this should be punishable.

The law should ensure that everyone has the right to life and in this case, it should come in handy to prosecute people who carry out abortions because they actually go against this law.Moreover, everyone has the freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state including the right to leave any country (plus ones own country) and to return without infringing. Besides these, everyone has the right to effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts that violate fundamental rights granted to them by the law (Kara, 2009).In the society we live today, many people would be so oppressed in their lives if there was no law governing human rights. For example cases of abortion would be so high if there was no one fighting for the rights of the unborn and there would be no respect of life.

In order to eliminate vices in the society and promote norms, the law has been of essential use in the United States and this is where the function of encouraging ethical behavior comes in. As an example, its an American experience that accountability of public officials is deeply ingrained in the constitution framework of the country to combat corruption. Therefore, the political and civic culture of the United States is based on the notion that public officials should perform their duties in public interest. Given this concern of public service, it becomes a great threat to the citizens if any misconduct is carried out by the public officials .To deal with this, the United States federal government has highly developed ethics infrastructure that includes a variety of specialized agencies which carry out preventive, investigative, and prosecutorial functions. The main aim of these functions is to implement a comprehensive framework of laws which are meant to preserve the integrity and equality of government operations and decision making. In doing so the governments uses the law to strengthen the publics confidence that governments business is carried out with impartiality and integrity (Richter, 2007).Based on this example, this function of the law affects the society we live in a way that if it was not in place, then American citizens would be oppressed by those in power or higher position in the government through corruption or by not working for the interest of the public but for their own selfish or personal gains.

Maintenance of law and order is another important function of the law and this one affects peoples everyday life. In the United States, its every ones right to spend time in public places and even move about without being threatened or disturbed by anyone like robbersthieves and pickpockets and its the duty of the police to ensure so. They should maintain general order and security in public places though patrols or by coming in time when called to scenes of illegal acts. Order and security are also required at borders to prevent and investigate unauthorized border crossings. Together with this, checks are carried out on persons, including their means of transport and their possessions because it helps to track down terrorists and people who would want to get their way in the United States illegally (Murphy, 2006).In the society we live today, there are so many crimes taking place each and every day like robbery with violence hence maintenance of law and order is important to keep people at peace and safe.

In conclusion, the law is very important in society because without it, vices and all kinds of evil will prevail, there will be no respect for humanity and the world as a whole would be in chaos and there will be no justice especially for the less privileged in society.